From Hillary Clinton’s emails to Pete Hegseth’s “Signalgate,” the indictments against John Bolton and Donald Trump all suggest that both men were hypocritical in their handling of classified information.
John Bolton pleads not guilty to secret documents charge
Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton has pleaded not guilty after being indicted on 18 counts of mishandling classified documents.
President Donald Trump had little comfort when former national security adviser John Bolton was indicted on charges of mishandling classified information.
“I think he’s a bad guy. Yes, he’s a bad guy. Unfortunately, that’s the reality,” Trump said at a news conference.
In fact, President Trump called Bolton a “criminal” in 2020 and claimed that Bolton published classified information in a book and “should go to prison for it.” (Bolton is currently facing criminal charges for transmitting classified information, but not through the book.)
Ironically, Trump himself once faced some Charges similar to those of Bolton. The president was indicted in 2023 on charges of knowingly retaining national defense information. That same year, a spokesperson for President Trump’s 2024 campaign called the charges “empty fabrications.”
Trump, like Bolton, has maintained his innocence. After he won the 2024 presidential election, the Justice Department dropped the case, citing its policy of not prosecuting sitting presidents.
Bolton, whose fitness to serve as president has been repeatedly questioned since serving under the Trump administration during his first term, now faces charges that he stored and transmitted classified information, including in some cases top-secret national defense information.
Although the charges against the two men differ in important ways, there are also some notable similarities. For example, both men are accused of illegally storing U.S. military information and leaking classified information to unauthorized individuals.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Bolton said he could not comment on the matter. One of Bolton’s attorneys, Abby Rowell, previously told USA TODAY in a statement that the facts of Bolton’s case had been investigated and resolved years ago.
“We look forward to Ambassador Bolton certifying once again that he did not unlawfully share or store any information,” Lowell said of his client, who previously served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
The Justice Department declined to comment publicly on the matter. The White House did not respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment.
Here’s a look at how the allegations against the two men are similar and different.
Trump and Bolton accused of improperly preserving classified information
Mr. Trump and Mr. Bolton have both been accused of improperly storing classified information, including classified information in some cases. This is highly sensitive government information, and its unauthorized disclosure would be “expected to cause extremely serious harm to national security.”
President Trump is said to have kept classified documents in a box at his Mar-a-Lago club about U.S. and foreign weapons capabilities, the U.S. nuclear program, and how the U.S. and its allies could be vulnerable to military attack.
Mr. Bolton is said to have kept information in his home about future attacks by foreign adversaries and covert actions planned or already carried out by the U.S. government.
Mr. Bolton will be charged with communicating national defense information, but Mr. Trump will not be indicted.
Details of the indictment against Trump accuse him of sharing confidential information with an author, a publisher, two staff members, and a representative of a political action committee. For example, in one taped meeting, President Trump is said to have presented and explained to several people an “attack plan” prepared by the Pentagon.
However, Trump has not been charged with transmitting national defense information to unauthorized persons. Mr. Bolton, by contrast, has been widely accused of doing so.
Bolton allegedly created a group chat with two others on a non-governmental messaging application the day before he was sworn in as national security adviser in President Donald Trump’s administration. Their names are not included in the indictment, but multiple media outlets reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, that the individuals were his wife and daughter.
Bolton repeatedly sent confidential information in “diary-like entries” to people he called “editors.” Some of the entries appear to have been used in his later book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.
In some cases, Mr. Bolton allegedly used personal non-governmental email accounts hosted by AOL and Google to email sensitive information to two unauthorized individuals in their personal email accounts.
Mr. Trump is charged with obstruction of justice after repeated cover-ups, but Mr. Bolton is not indicted.
Mr. Trump has not been charged with communicating national defense information, but unlike Mr. Bolton, he has been charged with trying to cover up his own alleged wrongdoing. Trump was criminally charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, concealing documents, and making false statements.
President Trump is accused of attempting to obstruct an FBI and grand jury investigation into whether he continued to hold classified documents by falsely suggesting to his lawyers that he did not have them, instructing aides to move boxes of documents, and attempting to delete surveillance footage of the boxes being removed.
One of Trump’s top aides reportedly told the Mar-a-Lago club’s IT director that after a subpoena was issued for the security camera footage, the “boss” wanted him to delete the servers storing the footage.
Mr. Bolton, but not Mr. Trump, alleges hacking by a foreign enemy
Only Bolton’s indictment alleges that a foreign adversary may have gained access to classified national defense information as a result of information manipulation.
According to the indictment, sometime between September 2019 and July 2021, a cyberattacker who the government believes has ties to the Iranian government hacked into Bolton’s personal email account and accessed information that Bolton had fraudulently sent via email.
The hack may have been aimed at blackmailing Bolton.
One person wrote in an email to Bolton and his representatives in July 2021: “I don’t think the FBI would be interested in learning about the leaked contents of John’s emails (some of which are attached). This could be the biggest scandal since Hillary’s email leaks, but this time it’s on the Republican side! Please contact me before it’s too late…”
According to the indictment, Mr. Bolton’s representatives notified the U.S. government of the hack, but did not say explicitly that the email account contained classified information.
Bolton and Trump accused of hypocrisy over statements about Clinton’s emails and Hegses Signal messages
Prosecutors suggested in the indictment that Bolton and Trump made hypocritical statements when they talked about how other officials with access to U.S. information communicated on private platforms.
Part of their statement concerned former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server for thousands of emails. Justice Department prosecutors concluded that although three email chains had paragraphs marked with a “C” as confidential, the emails on the server contained no clear classification markings. These chains lacked additional markings for sensitive information.
“If I was doing what Hillary Clinton did at the State Department, I would be wearing an orange jumpsuit by now,” Bolton told CNN in January 2017.
In an August 2016 speech, President Trump said, “In my administration, we will enforce every law that protects classified information. No one is above the law.”
Bolton’s indictment also includes statements he made about an Atlantic report about messages sent by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to a group chat on the private encrypted messaging app Signal. The message detailed the timing and weapons used in the US attack in Yemen. Several current Trump administration officials participated in the chat.
“What were they doing from safe government channels? That’s the original sin here,” Bolton was quoted as saying in a media interview in March 2025.
“I just couldn’t find a way to express how surprised I was that someone would do something like this,” Bolton reportedly said in an April 2025 media interview. “We don’t use any commercial means of communication, encrypted apps or otherwise, for these types of discussions.”
